As the deadline to withdraw from the 2023 NBA Draft approached, three starters from Creighton’s Elite Eight squad had decisions to make. Ryan Kalkbrenner was the first to announce his intentions, posting a one-sentence tweet on Monday that read simply “I am coming back to Creighton for another year.”
It was reminiscent of Doug McDermott’s tweet from April 2013, announcing he would return for his senior season thusly: “I will be returning to Creighton for my senior year and can’t wait to put on that uniform for one more season!”
The enormity of Kalkbrenner’s return cannot be understated. A two-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year who the Jays’ entire defensive scheme is built around, Kalkbrenner could become the first three-time winner of that award since Patrick Ewing — and only the second in Big East history — should he win it as a senior. His return means the Bluejay defense should remain elite, and if the three-point shooting he displayed at the NBA Combine becomes something opposing defenses have to respect, CU will be that much harder to defend.
He’s coming off an NCAA Tournament run where he set Creighton program records for points (80) and field goals made (32) in a single tourney. Kalkbrenner’s career-high 31 points in their first-round win over NC State were the most ever by a Bluejay in an NCAA Tournament game, breaking Doug McDermott’s record of 30 set against Louisiana in 2014. He was 11-of-14 from the floor (78.6%), tying Sleepy Floyd’s Big East record for highest shooting percentage in an NCAA Tournament game (minimum 30 points scored) — set all the way back in 1980 when Floyd starred for Georgetown. He drew 10 fouls (!) en route to making 8-of-9 from the line. He had seven rebounds, three blocks, two assists, and played 38 minutes. Those three blocks made him the first Bluejay with three in an NCAA Tournament game since Joe Dabbert in 2003.
Kalkbrenner has been part of six NCAA Tournament wins, the most of any CU player in program history — his teams have advanced to the Sweet 16 as a freshman, the Round of 32 as a sophomore and the Elite Eight as a junior. Combined with his defensive accolades, he’s already the most decorated Bluejay since Doug McDermott; with what could come as a senior, he could be headed toward a future where #11 is hanging in the rafters alongside McDermott and the other all-time great Bluejays.
Trey Alexander might not have the individual honors that Kalkbrenner does (yet) but he’s equally important to the Jays hopes of building on last season’s Elite Eight run. So when he dragged out his announcement (and perhaps his decision) until the early evening hours on Wednesday, it had everyone — the coaching staff, teammates, fans, all of whom were in the dark about his intentions — sweating bullets.
The significance of that decision is perhaps best reflected in the projected T-Rank for the Jays before and after: with Alexander on the roster, they’re #3 nationally and tops in the Big East according to T-Rank’s projections, and would have dropped to fourth in the league and #21 in the country without.
It’s understandable. There’s no obvious replacement on the roster, or left in the portal, for the things he does best: creating his own shot off the dribble, hitting tough contested shots inside the arc in big moments, and defending the other team’s best perimeter threat. If Kalkbrenner is the linchpin to CU’s success, Alexander is the X-Factor.
He’s created quite a legacy of his own through two seasons. As a freshman, he took over as the starting point guard in late February following Ryan Nembhard’s injury, and soon he was the catalyst of one of CU’s greatest March memories. With the Jays trailing 62-53 late in a first-round matchup against San Diego State, he assisted on one basket and hit the game-tying shot himself to cap a 9-0 run that sent the game to overtime.
He hit the eventual game-winner in OT, a breathtaking play where he dribbled into the lane, rose up to shoot but changed course in mid-air, holding onto the ball for a split second instead of shooting, and released the shot as he drifted back down to the ground when the defender’s arm was no longer in position to block it.
As a sophomore, he took a major step forward, averaging 13.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game while shooting 41.0% from three-point range. And he once again shined when the lights were brightest, scoring 17 points with eight rebounds and five assists in a second round win over Baylor, and 19 points in their Sweet 16 win over Princeton. In just the month of March, he scored 124 points over eight games (15.5 per game), making 19-of-45 from three-point range (42.2%), 23-of-47 inside the arc (48.9%), and 21-of-22 from the line with 21 assists and 39 rebounds.
And now he’ll return for a third season on the Hilltop where his anticipated role will be almost custom-tailored to set him up as a first-round NBA pick next summer, and maybe even vault him into the lottery. He’s likely to share point guard duties with Steven Ashworth, especially early in the season as the Utah State transfer gets up to speed on running point for the Jays’ complex offense.
“I think I’ll have a lot more opportunity in the college season to showcase that I can play on the ball,” Alexander told media at the combine two weeks ago. “If I’m in the draft and I’m able to find that fit, I feel like I have to stay…If I find a team that’s able to fit me in at an early stage of my career, then I would love to stay in the draft. If I get anything worse than that coming back, I’ll be back in school.”
As for Kaluma, who entered the transfer portal earlier in the month, he announced his intent to return to college after withdrawing from the draft and immediately became the hottest frontcourt player still available in the portal. Alabama, Texas, Texas Tech, and Kentucky were all mentioned as possible landing spots by ESPN in their report. Notably, if he ends up at Alabama, he’ll make a return visit to Omaha when the Crimson Tide begin a home-and-home series with the Jays in December.
Kaluma’s departure stings, but you can understand why it happened. His raw talent and skillset are high-level, but his ISO-heavy game never really fit into a Bluejay offense predicated on movement off the ball. It’s not a coincidence that his best games at CU generally came when Kalkbrenner was out of commission, giving Kaluma more space to operate; he scored 20 or more points four times as a Bluejay, with two of them coming when Kalkbrenner was out (his monster 24-point game against Kansas in the 2022 NCAA Tournament, and his career-high 27 point game against BYU in Las Vegas this past December).
He played huge roles on two very successful Bluejay teams, turning in big-time performances on big stages including a near double-double in the first round against NC State this year where he logged 10 points with nine rebounds, four assists and one very big block in the final minutes. He often did a lot of little things that led to wins — defending opposing shooters, grabbing rebounds — and his high-flying dunks were often momentum-shifting in their electricity. He was also the first high-profile recruit to commit to CU after Greg McDermott’s controversial spring of 2021, helping to settle choppy waters and reassert the Jays as factors in the Big East.
His departure creates an opportunity for Mason Miller to seize a bigger role. The former four-star recruit shows flashes of what he’s capable of as a redshirt freshman, knocking down threes with a lightning-fast release (20-of-54, 37.0%) and outworking opponents for rebounds (56 boards in just 325 minutes played). He reportedly had the highest vertical leap of anyone on the team when preseason measurements were taken last fall, showcasing his athleticism. It also creates a bigger role for freshman transfer Isaac Traudt, a four-star recruit who began his career at Virginia. At 6’10” he brings a length to the 4-spot that the Jays have rarely been able to deploy, and is also known for his outside shooting prowess.
The Jays’ roster is likely to be slightly less athletic compared to a year ago, offset by better shooting and more positional size, with (hopefully) more contributions from a bench stocked with players who now have a season of college ball under their belts.
While the hype surrounding the 2022-23 Bluejays was off-the-charts, they embraced it and ultimately came one possession short of a Final Four. The hype for the 2023-24 Bluejays is likely to be just as high with both Kalkbrenner and Alexander back for another round. Can they lead the program to Phoenix, site of the 2024 Final Four? After what they’ve already accomplished, there’s no reason to doubt the possibility.
